Thursday, May 21, 7:00 PM Herbal Housecleaning · herbal housecleaning. Using herbal teas and brews, baking soda and lavender to clean ... “All gardeners live in beautiful places

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The Tollgate Farm News Volume 21 Issue 5 May 2015

TOLLGATE GARDEN VOLUNTEER IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTSTOLLGATE GARDEN VOLUNTEER IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS

MAYMAYMAY MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS JUNJUNJUN MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS

21 TGV General Meeting 7:00 PM 2 TGAC Meeting 7:00 PM

10 Fall Fair Meeting 7:00 PM

18 TGV General Meeting 7:00 PM

MAYMAYMAY ACTIVITIESACTIVITIESACTIVITIES JUNJUNJUN ACTIVITIESACTIVITIESACTIVITIES

23 Memorial Day Weekend No Directed or Supported

Workday Activities

5 Spring Plant Sale Set Up 9:00 AM

6 Spring Plant Sale 9:00 AM

TO 2:00 PM

30 Farmhouse/Office/Heritage Plant Sale Division/Prep/Plant Drop Off

13 Dry Shade/Entrance/Rain Gardens 9:00 AM

20 Demo/Hosta/Farmhouse 9:00 AM

27 Heritage/Rock Ledge/Rose Gardens

9:00 AM

9:00 AM

MSU Tollgate Gardens Volunteer General Meeting in the Conference Center Thursday, May 21, 7:00 PM

On Thursday, May 21, join Tollgate gardeners in the Conference Center to learn about herbal housecleaning. Using herbal teas and brews, baking soda and lavender to clean means that your house will smell great and you will buy fewer cleaning products. Enjoy-ing herbal scents, you will feel so cheery when done cleaning the bathroom that you won't care about the rest of the house!

Coleen French will show us some of the best herbal helpers such as thyme and orange cleaner for kitchen surfaces, make-your-own 'soft scrub,' and fragrant herbal room sprays, as well as how to boost the effectiveness of Murphy Oil Soap as a floor cleaner and what works well to clean ceramic cooktops. Coleen will bring recipes and a list of handy herbs to grow this summer to make your own brews.

Coleen French is the owner of French Garden Creations and an Advanced Master Gar-dener. She is the author of two books, Herbal Possibilities and Soaper’s Cook Book, and a free monthly e-mail, French Garden Creations Herb Newsletter. Coleen has been grow-ing and using herbs for over 30 years, and teaching herb-related classes since 1996. She is active with Michigan Herb Associates, and a frequent speaker at garden clubs, civic groups and Master Gardener conferences in many counties in Michigan.

Coleen usually sells her handmade soaps and other herbal products at the Tollgate summer open house, Art in the Gardens; however, due to family commitments, she is unable to participate this year. May 21 is a convenient time to get items you would normally purchase in July. Coleen accepts cash and checks. If you receive her e-mail newsletter, she welcomes pre-orders and will save you postage by hav-ing your items ready for pick up and payment before or after her presentation.

Herbal HousecleaningHerbal HousecleaningHerbal Housecleaning

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f rom the Tol lgate Farm Manager Roy Prentice

Greetings All,

We have been checking our many bird boxes in the back fields, recently. Bluebirds, swallows and wrens have taken up residence in several of the boxes. No doubt, the first new family of geese will be sighted on the pond soon (great). Herons, ducks and even a swan are all joining the geese in an aquatic get-together.

Maple Syrup Wrap Up. Thanks to the wonderful work of the maple syrup crew, we had another great year in the Tollgate woods. This year’s efforts produced over 83 gallons of syrup! The season culminated in a luncheon on April 25th hosted by the Tollgate maple syrup tappers. In addition to pancakes, bacon and lots of Tollgate syrup, volunteers were able to purchase syrup. At the end of the event, the entire 2015 product was sold. It was a great year! Thanks to all who made it happen.

Earth Day. For the fifth consecutive year, Tollgate teamed up with the City of Novi to conduct the City’s celebration of Earth Day on Saturday, May 9th. We usually have many attendees for these events. This year the group responded to the cold misty rainy weather and turned out in dribbles rather than droves. The small but deter-mined group focused on the vegetable garden area developing beds for the Community Support-

ed Agriculture garden and creating youth garden educational areas. Although small in number, the Earth Day attendees were in good spirits, had a lot of fun and managed to get a lot done.

Plant Sale’s a’Coming. Please help Tollgate by bringing plants to the farm that can be sold at the June 6th plant sale. This is our major fundraiser for the gardens and we need your help to make the event truly successful. If you need pots, there are plenty that can be obtained at Tollgate. Pots and plastic tags are available in the yard barn across the drive from the nursery. Please label

any plants that you are bringing to the site so that we can give as much information as possible to our garden shoppers. Due to concern for the spread of hosta Virus X, we are not accepting the donation of any hostas this year.

See you soon around the farm!

Roy

GREETINGS

Photo by Darretta Ferasin

Photo by Mike Janczarek

Photo by Renee Cottrell

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“All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so.” — Joseph Joubert

Thank you to all the volunteer gardeners who have been out for our early clean up and work sessions so far this season. Your hard work and green thumb talents are much appreciated. We will need lots of

helping hands to stay ahead of the weeds as the warmer weather moves in. If you blinked, I think you missed spring!

See the Activity Calendar for details on upcoming Saturday activities. As a reminder we ask that volunteers check the newsletter and e-mails to know what tools to bring to the Saturday activity days. It helps to be prepared for the sun with a hat and skin protection including work gloves.

We are Gearing Up for the Spring Plant Sale Our major plant purchases for new gardens and additions to existing ones, not to mention our seasonal mulch and compost supplies come from the proceeds from this major fundraiser. The Tollgate Gardeners always come through with great selections to fill our rows and I am asking again for your donations. I hope you are keeping us in mind for your spring divisions. Named varieties and botanical names are best but if not known, bloom time and color are helpful. Items blooming in late May/early June are good sellers. SIGN UP if you have not already signed up for working the plant sale on the Doodle link or alternate sign-up sheets at the meeting please do so ASAP.

See the Nursery Notes Article on the Following Page

I invite any new or established member to join or form a team for one of the garden areas on the site. This is a great way to learn, share and feel connected to what we do here. Find something you love and go for it! E-mail me or see me at any of the monthly meetings/Saturday workdays.

See you all soon. Thanks for being a Tollgate Garden volunteer. Renee Cottrell, President Tollgate Garden Volunteers

NotesNotesNotes from the President

The Nursery Team is Gearing Up for the Spring Plant Sale

Photo by Renee Cottrell

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NURSERY NOTES May is our big push for getting your donated plant divisions for the June plant sale. As this Newsletter arrives at your inbox, the Nursery workday to divide and pot divisions from the property has just occurred, so we’re in the home stretch to stock a good selection of plants for the June 6 sale..

WE NEED YOUR DONATIONS! Please check out your home gardens for plants that you can divide and bring to Tollgate! We appreciate receiving your donations no later than Saturday, May 30th, since plants that have had some time to acclimate after being potted and placed in the nursery are generally more attractive to our custom-ers. This also allows time for the nursery team to research and prepare “plant tags” to better inform our custom-ers and promote sales.

THANK YOU for supporting Tollgate and the Nursery Team with your plant donations!

QUESTIONS about this process or interested in joining our Nursery Team? Please contact Peg Palmer or Renee Cottrell!

Peg Palmer [email protected] Renee Cottrell [email protected]

A short explanation of Tollgate’s Nursery operation – as a refresher and to inform new members:

The Nursery is where we hold plant divisions from the Tollgate gardens and donations from our volunteers that will either be used in the various gardens or sold at the plant sale. Tollgate area garden leaders can select plants from this area to enhance their selected gardens as approved, but most plants are sold at the plant sale, which provides significant funding for all the Tollgate Gardens. Plants in bloom are usually quite popular, but it seems that shoppers at the June sale are always looking for something different, so we try to have a broad se-lection of healthy and attractive plants available. The nursery is organized into sections for different plant types (sun and shade perennials, iris, daylily, grasses, shrubs…) to help shoppers find what they are looking for.

Please follow these directions as you deliver your donations at the Nursery:

You may drop off plants already potted and use PENCIL on the markers provided at the bench in the nursery. (There is a plastic coffee can on the potting bench or in the nearby tool shed for labeling plant name and bloom color – please include botanical name if known).

If you need to pot divisions here at Tollgate there are pots available at the potting station or the stor-age shed located near the Nursery. Use compost in the bin provided and water well.

If you cannot pot & water the plants when you drop them off, please contact Peg Palmer so volunteer help can be arranged to pot your donated divisions before they die!

Place your potted & labeled donations in the large holding area in the front portion of the shade structure. The nursery team will relocate to the appropriate nursery location.

Some general guidance on which plants to donate:

A plant in bloom is usually easy to sell, since customers can more easily visualize how it will fit into their landscape

In recent years, we have had frequent requests for plants that attract butterflies and other beneficial insects. Flowering plants native to Michigan in general fill this bill

We currently have adequate supplies of yellow daylilies, generic sedum groundcovers and green-leaved hosta. Donations of unusual colors/sizes or named varieties are preferred for these categories

Please avoid plants that tend to be invasive

MAY 2015

Page 5 Photo on Bottom Left and Above by Mike Janczarek

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Photo on Left and Photos Above by Darretta Ferasin

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Photos by Frank Allen

Photo by Roy Prentice

The Patio Garden, located in the northwest main parking lot, just be-yond the grape arbor, has a new purpose, and so has been renamed the Reflection Garden.

With the installation of a pondless pond, a type of water fountain, it is intended to be a place of reflection, whether on the day’s events or the people and pets we love. With the soft breeze blowing through the trees, the soothing color pal-ette of the shrubs and flowers, and the gentle sound of water, it invites visitors to sit on the memorial benches and relax, letting the stresses of the day slip by.

From here a visitor can see much of the beauty of the farm - from other demo gardens, to horses grazing in the pasture, to the Children’s Garden, to the Xeri-scape Garden, to the Apple Orchard.

Newer technology has been used to create the pondless pond, which is a type of fountain with the water reservoir hidden under ground. The fountain column was made from hypertufa by Farmbrook Design in Lansing. It is part cement, part other ingredients that makes it lighter than an all-concrete column. The water reservoir is buried under the decorative stone surrounding the column and contains nearly 75 gallons of water, with a shutoff float when it is full. Since there is no electric available to power the submersible pump, a solar panel has been mounted on one of the legs of the grape arbor. The solar panel’s energy is converted to electricity and stored in a battery near the base of the pole, so the submersible pump can run for a period when it is not sunny. The pole hold-ing the solar panel can be taken down to clean the panel when needed.

The technical details of the column are: it weighs nearly 600 lbs., the height of the column is about 42 inches and the diameter is about 18 inches. The water reservoir is light, at only 46.5 lbs., yet can hold up to 1,200 lbs. and is 4 ft. x 4 ft. on the top edge. The submersible pump is 12-24 volts, has a flow rate of 412 gallons per minute, and a vertical lift of 10.5 ft.

Frank Allen

Page 7 Photos by Darretta Ferasin

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Have you been out and about taking photos of Tollgate? Would you like to share them with the rest of the membership? The Tollgate calendar is the perfect opportunity to do so!! I am collect-ing photos of the farm for the 2017 calendar. You have plenty of time to take pictures and submit them as the cut off date for consideration is October 31, 2015.

Landscape format is preferred. Photos can be sent to [email protected] or sub-mitted on a memory stick, with your name so it can be returned to you. Drop of the memory stick off at Roy's office or give to me at a Volun-teer Meeting.

Thank you in advance. Without your photo sub-missions the calendar would not be possible.

Nancy Roggers

2017 Tollgate Calendar Photos

Recently, the Children’s Prairie Garden was burned to the ground. A controlled prairie burn is recom-mended every 3-4 years to kill off annual weeds and rejuvenate the prairie plants. I have noticed in past years, that the grasses seemed to come up sooner and there are less weeds. The burn simulates what mother nature periodically does in the woods and prairies. It cuts down on small dead brush allowing some plants to grow better.

Sue Janczarek

Welcome New Tollgate Volunteers Prior to the delicious pancake brunch on Saturday, April 25, Roy Prentice welcomed new Tollgate Volunteers with a short presen-tation and a guided tour of the grounds.

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The 2015 Tollgate Quilt, “Tollgate Summer Nights”, will be at our next Tollgate Volunteer meeting.  

Quilt: Tollgate Summer Nights

Pattern: Disappearing Hourglass

Approximate Size: 75” x 85”

Raffle Date: Saturday, July 18th at the close of the 2015 Tollgate Open House, Art in the Gardens.

Tickets: $2.00 each or (3) for $5.00

Quilter: Pam Heldt

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE MAY TOLLGATE VOLUNTEER

GENERAL MEETING

Live, Laugh and Eat Dessert First…before every meeting Baked goods are needed for our Tollgate Volunteer General Meetings. The desserts can be store bought if you don’t have time to bake. We are also in need of a volunteer to coordinate desserts, set up beverages and clean up. Please contact Roy or Renee if you or a team are interested in taking on this role.

Membership Membership forms are due by May 31. If you are not sure if you have sent in a form you can contact me at [email protected] and I will check the database for you. After May 31, I will be updating the database. So, please get those membership forms in to continue to receive the Farm News, workday information and other information about events at Tollgate.

The membership form can be downloaded from the Tollgate Education Center website: http://tollgate.msu.edu/volunteering/membership_form

Nancy Roggers

Kay Pratt and Kathy Coleman

Susan Bremer and Kay Pratt

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Volunteer Activity Day and Meetings Information

248-347-3860 ext. 400

● The Tollgate Gardens Advisory Council next meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 2. 2015 at 7:00 PM in the Tollgate Office Building. All Tollgate Gardens Volunteer members are welcome to attend.

● Listings to contact individual Council Members and Area Garden Leaders are available at all general meetings and in the Volunteer Communication Center.

● Tollgate Volunteer Membership is renewed annually. The 2014 Tollgate Garden Volunteers membership is from December 1, 2014 to November 30, 2015.

Farm Manager Roy Prentice - 248 347-3860 ext. 251 e-mail - [email protected]

President ........................... Renee Cottrell Vice President… ............... Peg Palmer Secretary… ........................ Dave Komraus Treasurer ........................... Sue Janczarek Membership ...................... Nancy Roggers PR ....................................... Yvonne DeMattos Fall Fair .............................. Dennis Roggers Programs ........................... Jackie Stengel Hospitality ......................... Yvonne DeMattos Farm News Editor ............. Darretta Ferasin

For membership questions or to update your current membership information send e-mail to:

[email protected]

MSU Tollgate Gardens Volunteers For general information and questions

Contact Roy Prentice

Activity Days Activity day hours are 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM unless otherwise noted on the Tollgate Garden Volunteer Important Dates and Events listed on the first page of the Tollgate Farm News or by the Area Garden Leader (AGL).

Lunch will be provided - veggie alternatives are available upon request.

This schedule does not exclude you from working independently on the site. However, on non-scheduled days, your efforts will need to be self-directed with guidance from the garden area clipboards located in the Volunteer Communication Center.

If you aren’t getting The Tollgate Farm News

e-mail, Check your SPAM folder

Tollgate Volunteer InformationTollgate Volunteer InformationTollgate Volunteer Information

THE TOLLGATE FARM NEWS

Tollgate Gardens Volunteer Office 28115 Meadowbrook Novi, MI, 48377-3128 www.tollgate.msu.edu

Tollgate Garden Advisory CouncilTollgate Garden Advisory CouncilTollgate Garden Advisory Council

Trowel Hand Pruners Loppers Garden Scissors Your Favorite

Weeding Implement Hand Saw

Plant Division Forks Shrub Rake Sun Screen Gloves Knee Pads Insect Repellant

List of Suggested Gardening Implements to Bring

from Home as Needed

Spades

Garden Rakes

Brooms

Wheel Barrels

Weed Buckets

Leaf Rakes

Garden Hoe

Long Handled

Garden Forks

Garden Tools Available for Use at Tollgate